Many people incorporate a Hong Kong company because they want to open a bank account in Hong Kong. Unlike the governments of many other countries, the Hong Kong government does not impose restriction on the import and export of foreign currency. Money can flow freely into and out of Hong Kong. This makes Hong Kong an ideal place for capital to stay before entering into China.

However, the absence of currency restriction also makes Hong Kong potentially a good place for criminal activities. Therefore, in order to prevent their services from being abused, all banks in Hong Kong impose strict requirements on opening a bank account.

So before you come to Hong Kong to open a bank account, you should be aware of the following things:

You should bring with you:

your personal identification documents, such as passport or identification card;

business proof, such as invoices of your existing business, business plan, contracts, or even copies of your business’ web pages;

residential address proof of the directors and shareholders, such as utilities bills that have their names and addresses.

Certified true copies of various documents, such as the Certificate of Incorporation and Business Registration. Your company kit should come with them.

A HKD $5,000 or USD $1,000 cheque for initial deposit.

For more information, please download and read HSBC Business Account Opening Instruction. Note that different banks have different requirements. While HSBC generally does not require a copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, some banks do. The safest thing to do is to bring the whole company kit there to avoid any surprises.